


Haunted By Humans

by ismytoastdone



Category: In the Flesh (TV), The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-13
Updated: 2014-07-13
Packaged: 2018-02-08 17:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1950006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ismytoastdone/pseuds/ismytoastdone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>~ I remember the first. ~<br/>The girl, Amy Dyer, had a soul the colour of the midday sun. She hadn't been happy to see me.</p><p>//</p><p>The rising and the events after from the perspective of Death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Haunted By Humans

**~*~ I once told you that I am haunted by humans. ~*~**  
I take refuge in the colours of the sky and the souls all bound together in my ever-loving arms.  
In turn I came for them when they called.  
I gave them a home to rest their head.  
It was harmony  
Until it wasn’t. 

~

My job was temporarily taken from me. I wasn’t so much redundant, more like demoted. I was belittled - laughed at by The Other who sought to prove their worth. They showed me how quickly they could destroy my countless years of careful work. The showed what they could do, and how helpless I was against them.

They tore the colours from my pallet. The unfinished masterpiece of colours and textures and souls had a cruel hand shoved against it –smudging the very frame in which it sat. They cut the seams that held the souls to me and forced them unceremoniously back into a body that tried so hard to reject them. I was furious. In all of time I had never felt such acute, immense, consuming anger. Yet I was as much bound to The Other as the souls once were to me. 

I could do nothing.

**~*~ I remember the first. ~*~  
The girl, Amy Dyer, had a soul the colour of the midday sun. She hadn’t been happy to see me.**

The last thought that graced her mind was how unfair I was – much to my distaste. However there was nothing special about her, in particular. I look back and think that if I had observed closer, if I had let her soul touch with mine for the merest of moments more, I may have realised what a big part this girl was to play in my demise.

It was agony. If I had a voice I would have screamed. If I had a face it would have twisted unrecognisably. If I had a wish, I would have wished for myself.  
It was over quickly.

In the big picture the 140,000 that were taken from me was nothing. But the virgin wound on my untouched mind caused the greatest ache of them all.

**~*~ The Important Man ~*~  
Kieren. His soul looked like rain in a freshly formed puddle. He had been calling me. I am nothing but polite with my invitations.**

His soul lurched into my arms. Wrapping eager arms around me, with his head still turned to look at his body among the shrine of candles and rocks. I had not known at the time, but he was to play an important part in my war. He would be the sacrifice that would not be.

**~*~ A word of appeasement ~*~**  
It hadn’t been his time.  
But I am a bringer of peace, and he craved me more than he craved the boy whose soul I dragged from the wreckage of a bomb.  
I do try to please, when I can. 

~

Over the course of the year I recollected some of the souls. Each was like falling into a soothing bath; putting ice on a burning wound. It felt good to receive what had been rightfully mine. 

**~*~ The beginnings of an idea ~*~**  
I don’t try to be clever, but I kept a watchful eye on the village of Roarton.  
(Whose sky was tinged with heather)  
Hoping that perhaps it held some sort of sign that could help reverse what had been done to me. 

When Simon arrived, I could feel his purpose with every step. He spoke of a second rising and his arrogance angered me. The humiliation of humans thinking they could control me, and hurt me in such a way made vengeance flare up inside me. I so dearly wished to take him then and then; with a soul of green splotched with grey. He had inconvenienced me last time, shoving a needle into his skin and pulling sharply on my sleeve to come and pick him up. He wasn’t going to again. 

**~*~ A good decision on my part ~*~**  
However I decided to watch. With a job like mine patience is key.  
I watched as he met the boy with the twin scars running down in wrists. 

**And I watched as he fell in love with him.**

I knew then that I had to leave him; for he would protect the man at all costs. He would prevent it all from happening again. As long as they believed he was the first, I would be safe.

But then the most extraordinary thing happened. The exposed gaping wound where the first’s soul had been healed as though it had never been there at all. Then I watched the red dripping from her body and let her soul slump into my arms. This time she filled a different spot on the canvas. A new spot. 

She had been reborn.

And I had taken her away.

**~*~ Moment of clarity ~*~**  
The Other forgets that we are two sides of the same coin.  
Forgets that the universe has a way of keeping us constant. It does not like to see us bicker.  
I knew then to step back and let nature run its course. 

**I may be haunted by humans  
but I am not haunted by Him.**

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't read The Book Thief you're probably really confused.
> 
> But uh, if you have then I hope I managed to say stuff that seems meaningful without it actually having much meaning.
> 
> (I wrote this in a moment of madness, I'm aware it's kind of crap)  
> Anyway, if you're more into zombie puns then you can always follow me on tumblr - cutiepatootiekieren 
> 
> -Carys


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